Unstable Ground
by thedeadpen
Summary: When an earthquake levels NG while our favorite recording artists are inside, who lives to tell about it? Who won't be coming home? And how will those left pick up the pieces and move on? "Wake up. I can't go on without you. Wake up."
1. This Day Will Live In Infamy

Just revamped the whole fic (grammar and style, a few plot changes), so if you're an old reader you might want to do a once-over. Happy reading. I don't own these characters.

WARNING: I debated on the rating, but went with T. After reading, if you think this is inappropriate please let me know. It is definitely borderline M.

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen, we're coming to you live from the heart of Tokyo. If you're just joining us, the destruction that you see behind me is all that remains of an entire district of businesses in the aftermath of an earthquake unlike the city has seen in centuries. At 10:19 this morning, an isolated 7.7 quake rocked the entire island of Honshu and its origin was here. I can't even describe what it's like to be standing here right now. Many of the largest buildings that stood in this part of the city are damaged, and several have partially collapsed. This shell of a building, just a few hours ago, was a 30 story structure, a division of NG, Japan's leading music corporation.

"Search and rescue workers are still tirelessly looking for survivors amidst the rubble of the business district, which employs millions of people, and unfortunately this morning was no different. The local police and emergency agencies are stretched thin, as are local hospitals. The prime minister has declared a state of emergency and issues a plea for international assistance. Rescue teams, working with trained dogs, have been tirelessly scouring the devastation in search of survivors, but none have been found since within an hour of the quake. Stay tuned, I'll be bringing you live updates throughout the day. Now we're going to go to Hikaru Motomo, a seismologist at Tokyo University who will explain to us why the quake only affected this area, and why it did so much damage. Motomo-san?"

"Thank you. Earthquakes are a fierce and fascinating natural phenomenon..."

The room was dark and he was sitting on the couch. Heavy curtains kept the sunlight out and also blocked the vision of smoke and debris rising over the buildings visible from his window. The remote was on the floor, it's batteries a few feet away where they'd rolled after popping out when the tremors flung it to the floor off the coffee table. His morning coffee was also on the floor, pooling into the carpet, where he'd dropped it when he turned the news on.

Mouth slightly agape, eyes wide in horror, Eiri Yuki could do nothing but watch as footage of the collapsing business district played over and over and Hikaru Motomo droned on about epicenters and statistics.

How could this be happening?

* * *

"_Yuki," Shuichi climbed into the bed he shared with his lover and wrapped himself around the sleeping novelist, softly calling his name. "Yuki..." He wanted to say goodbye before he dressed and left for work. But they'd been up most of the night and Yuki was more than reluctant to wake now._

_Growling deep in his throat, the older man shifted away and buried his head in a pillow. He wasn't ready to face the day yet. "Go away."_

_Snorting discontentedly, Shuichi straddled Yuki's buttock and laid down across his lover's back. Nibbling the novelist's ear, he began to rock his hips while his hands fumbled underneath the blankets that separated their already naked bodies._

_Suddenly Yuki was paying much more attention to the young musician. With barely an inward sigh at more sleep he would never regain, he quickly rolled over, then planted Shuichi firmly over his own straining hips._

_The younger man was startled until his lover pulled him into a deep kiss. Shuichi broke away with a gasp and Yuki started to trail kisses down his neck and chest. He was now thankful for Shuichi's thoughtfulness to wake him before he got dressed. The thin cotton sheet was all that kept their bodies from fully touching._

_The musician groaned and pressed his hips down, making Yuki uncomfortable under the sheet fabric. Once more he rolled over, this time tossing the sheet aside and dragging his Shuichi under him._

_He knew that Shuichi would willingly spend the rest of the day in bed with him if he hinted at the possibility, so he'd have to be quick about satisfying both their needs and sending him off to work or else face the wrath of his insane manager and another lecture from Tohma._

_Grabbing the lube off the bedside table, Yuki was slow yet insistent, and when they were finished he immediately sent Shuichi off to the shower. The musician was out the door in time to make it to work no more than ten minutes behind schedule._

_Later Yuki would wish he'd given in this one time and kept him at home._

_Tohma was straightening his tie when he entered the kitchen. Mika turned around from making fresh coffee and natto and he smiled at her swollen stomach. He pecked her cheek and placed his hands on what would some day been his son or daughter._

"_You're glowing, Mika." And it was true. He'd noticed his wife's substantial beauty even more now that she was carrying his child._

"_Tohma," she scoffed, handing him his breakfast and shooing him towards the table. It was papered in parenting magazines, baby insurance plans, and books full of names that Mika poured over in her eagerness to welcome the new addition to their family. Clearing himself a space, he sat down and took a sip of his coffee while unfolding the paper._

_Mika continued to bustle around the kitchen and occasionally Tohma would look up between scanning stories to watch her. He was so proud of his wife. She was battling morning sickness and had gotten rather large, but she insisted on keeping up the house, going so far as to fire their longtime maid when she finally took maternity leave from work. Though he was opposed to her over exerting herself and had tried to bring in new help, that was a battle he'd lost long ago. Stubbornness ran in her family, after all._

_Tohma folded the paper and stood as soon as he'd finished his coffee. Mika came to take his dishes and kiss him goodbye, telling him to have a good day. He, in turn, told her to think of herself and the baby and get some rest. She brushed it off and went back to scrubbing the spotless counters._

_With a half hearted sigh and a chuckle, Tohma Seguchi grabbed his coat and left for work. He didn't know then that he wouldn't be coming home later that night..._

"_Hey baby, did I wake you?"_

"_Not at all. Good morning Hiroshi." Ayaka's sunshine voice made the guitarist feel warm inside. He could almost see her smiling as she cradled the phone and lounged in a chair, or maybe settled onto a bench in the morning sun. She was always up with the birds. The perfect woman._

"_So, um...I was wondering if you had plans later." He attempted to shrug on a button up shirt as he spoke. Nothing too casual in case she said no, and nothing too classy in case she was busy._

"_No. Did you have something in mind?" His smile grew as he grabbed the jeans with less holes in them and slid the legs on with difficulty while he continued the conversation._

"_Well, I was checking out this nice little Thai restaurant around the corner from the studio. I thought it might be nice to go together sometime. I mean, I don't know if you like Thai food, or if you wanted to go with me, but-"_

"_I'd love to." She was laughing at him. He dropped the phone and tripped over his pants and had to bite his tongue to keep from swearing._

_"Really? I mean great. That would be great." He smiled and almost dropped the phone again while he fiddled with a button and checked his wallet to make sure he could afford to buy Ayaka the nicest dinner on the menue. "Should I come get you, or if you wanted to meet me-"_

_"I'm sure that I can meet you. You said it was just around the corner from the office?"_

_"Yeah. We should wrap up in the studio around 5 or so, but it could always run over. You know hose guys."_

_"I don't think Shindou-san will keep you any longer than he has to. After all, he has Eiri-san to go home to." Hiro felt a pang- more like a crippling stab- of jealously, but calmed himself. Ayaka said Yuki's name like she said anyone else's these days. Maybe there really could be a future for them._

_"All right then. How about I meet you outside at a quarter after?"_

_"That would be wonderful. I'll see you then."_

_"Bye, Ayaka." 'I love you.'_

_"Goodbye, Hiroshi." She didn't say it, either. But maybe that was because he hadn't said it. Hiro kicked himself as he dropped the phone onto the receiver and locked the door on his way out of the apartment, but he rode to work with a smile on his face. He even drove by the restaurant he planned to take Ayaka to. Maybe tonight he'd tell her..._

_But he'd never get the chance to take her out that night._

_"Oh my God! There's a coffee stain on my tie!" Sakano tore the soiled article from around his neck and rushed to the closet, nearly sloshing his steaming mug over everything else he had on._

_"None of these match! What will I do? If I show up in the wrong tie- if Seguchi-san notices- if he says anything-" Sakano was sufficiently discomfited thinking about it to refrain from saying it aloud. No, he couldn't have that._

_"I'll just pick up another one." With that enormous decision out of the way, he was free to rush about the rest of his morning activities. In the next thirty minutes, he'd washed out the stained tie and hung it to dry, watered his extensive collection of potted plants, shined his shoes, re-ironed his entire suit outfit, and went through seven more cups of coffee._

_He grabbed his final cup as he waited for the department store to open, and managed to somehow make it to work before anyone else but the maintenance staff, looking absolutely impeccable. Just let Seguchi try to find something wrong with him today!_

"_Oh my God, is that a spot?" _

_It was just another normal day in his life. But if he knew... maybe he wouldn't have bothered with the new tie. Or maybe that was just Sakano..._

"_Do you really need something so big?"_

_K hefted his gun to examine the barrel as he sat at the kitchen table eating the food Judy had gotten up ten minutes early to order. But it was damn good food. The best delivery bento around._

"_Tohma said big. Who am I to disobey a direct order?"_

"_Well, I'm giving you a direct order to get that thing out of your face around my son. If you blow your head off-"_

_K laughed, but lower his firearm. "Last time I checked, I was also involved in that son being here."_

"_Is that so?" K pulled his wife into his lap._

"_It is." She shoved his face away when he moved towards her._

"_I don't remember it. And don't you dare try that in front of _my_ son." She stood up and lifted the little boy into the air. She cooed at him when he started making kissing faces, to imitate what his parents weren't always so secretive about._

"_Good boy." She spun the child around, blowing kisses back at him through the air. K watched all of this with as much fatherly pride as he could have for his son, and as much love as he could have for his wife._

_They might be a somewhat dysfunctional family, but they had a lot of love. As he headed out the door, K told Judy that he would pick dinner up, a gesture that the ravishing love of his life was always appreciative for. Unfortunately, he wouldn't make it for dinner._

_The idle keyboard released a light background pulse in the form of Bad Luck's keyboardist's latest masterpiece. Said keyboardist was sprawled across his instrument, his hand compressing the 'auto repeat' button. His headphones had slipped off his neck and dangled a few inches from the ground._

_Just hours ago, he'd been feverishly working on an arrangement to suit Shuichi's new vocal track, and it was an ambitious project, but he was nearly there. He wanted to take Bad Luck to the next level, and this single was just the song to do it with._

_More than that, though, Suguru wanted to prove himself to his friends and colleagues, most of all to his cousin. He'd get out of Tohma's shadow now, or he'd never escape. With the baby one the way and Nittle Grasper on indefinite hiatus, there probably wouldn't be a better time to distinguish himself from the image of his cousin, both musically and as a person._

_Today he would have showed up early, to be ready to unveil his supreme creation. But he'd pulled one too many late night sessions and he slept through the alarm. By the time he woke up, there was no point in rushing off to the studio. There was no longer a studio to rush off to._

* * *

Next chapter starts in real time. What will happen now?


	2. Awake In A Nightmare

I don't own these characters.

* * *

Another stretcher rolled by with another nameless victim. The limp body was small, broken, and the face mangled beyond being human in a bloody contortion of pain.

Was this the missing lover, husband, mother, bandmate, friend? But again the doctors passed by with no words of comfort or encouragement for the small group huddled loosely in the waiting room.

In all honesty, none of them should have been allowed to stay. All around, makeshift treatment areas had been set up for the patients spilling over from the emergency and operating rooms. There wasn't room to spare for anyone not suffering from a critical injury or tending to someone who was.

And yet these six helpless looking people couldn't have been moved if one of the doctors had had the heart to try. None did, though.

They all knew each other, it was obvious by the way they stood so close and occasionally exchanged looks. Not one of them spoke, though, and it was coincidence that they'd all showed up at just around the same time, because none had been thinking clearly enough to contact those they knew would be going through the same worry and pain.

Another stretcher rolled by. Six pairs of eyes snapped up, then turned away quickly. Pacing resumed. Fingers tapped again. Two women exchanged tearful glances, their combined emotions making both have to quickly look elsewhere.

A few interns and nurses watched them pityingly. Naturally they knew who most of the crowd was. Eiri Yuki and Judy Winchester's faces were plastered on magazine covers in the newsstand outside the hospital. Mika Seguchi and Suguru Fujisaki had their own followings, too. The tall, dark-haired youth looked enough like Yuki to be of some close relation, and the other conservatively dressed young woman might have been his girlfriend.

In their minds, it just went to show that even the world's brightest stars suffered tragically, too. Of course, there were more important things to do than tend to the emotionally wrecked group; they could read about their troubles next week in the tabloids. Now there were too many people to help and not enough help to go around.

Hours. They'd been waiting hours. Yuki couldn't handle it. He wasn't concerned that the hospital could set up at least two more cots in the space his small crowd was taking up if they left. It didn't matter that there were so many people that it was almost impossible to take time to identify anyone, that doctors were just trying to save as many lives as they could and things would get sorted out later. Even the fact that rescue workers weren't letting in the bodies of the dead, or those so severely wounded that they had no hope didn't cross his mind. He wanted to know. He was so worried. He wasn't even considering the possibilities that knowing might leave him with.

"Damn it, where is he?" There was too much going on for the scene to be notice by the general room, but everyone in their group was staring at Yuki. A young intern in a surgical gown was quivering and kicking his feet feebly as they dangled a foot off the ground. His gloved hands groped along the white wall behind him. There was a patch of blood in the blond of his hairline. He was barely older than Shuichi.

"Eiri." Tatsuha felt his brother jerk under his touch. His knuckles were white, clutching the interns arms as if he'd squeeze the information he so desperately wanted out of him. It was pointless. No one knew. No one. "Let him go, bro. Let him go."

Slowly, Yuki's fingers uncurled. His victim disappeared back through the doors he'd rushed out of, shaking. People started moving again. Tatsuha tried to touch his brother again, but he pulled away. He could read Eiri when no one else but Shuichi might be able to, and he'd never seen his brother under so much stress. No exceptions.

No one could return to calm, but there were no more violent outbursts for another few minutes. No news yet, either. Again the doors swung open, presumably with another rolling cart carrying someone who stood less and less of a chance of getting the care they needed. Only it wasn't.

Judy screamed. Another nurse looked at the door.

"Oh my God! He has a gun! Get down!" But by then, K had dropped the weapon from his unsteady right hand and stumbled away from Noriko into his wife's arms.

The other five crowded around the couple, and they were joined by Noriko and Ryuichi. There were as many smiles as tears. There was hope.

"Claude, I was so worried!" Judy buried herself against her husband's chest and bawled. K ran his right hand through her hair, softly kissing her forehead. Everyone else looked at the two members of Nittle Grasper, at a loss for words.

"He saved us both," Ryuichi said quietly. "That's how he got hurt." Head bolted back to K and Judy. She'd already discovered it, his mangled left arm. He wouldn't be shooting anyone for a while. He just hadn't been able to leave the gun in the ruins of the NG studio. Now his gun could be damned. He only wanted to hold his wife.

At that point, Noriko seemed to be the most able minded of the three of them. After his first words, Ryuichi refused to speak and huddled against the wall, watching them all. K was distracted with his wife. So she explained how they'd been in the studio when they felt the first tremors, and how K has forced her and Ryuichi under a sound table before the ceiling and walls started coming down around them. His arm had gotten caught by on of the lights shaken free from the ceiling. They'd actually all been able to walk up a flight of stairs and out through a hole where the lobby wall used to be and onto the street when it was all over. A fireman had tried to direct them to an ambulance, but Noriko supported K and they walked to the hospital, hoping someone who needed the medical help more might get it.

"That's how we all ended up here," she finished, wiping a stray hair off her forehead and leaving a trail of grim. Everyone else shifted silently, processing what they'd been told and what was obviously missing from the story.

"But- but where's everyone else?" Suguru couldn't hold onto his composure anymore. He'd never so keenly in his life felt his age in the presence of the adults around him. In so many ways he was still a child, and he'd never yet had occasion to deal with death or loss. He kept telling himself he should have been there. "We were sharing the studio today. Where's everyone else!" He should have been there. When Noriko looked at him, he saw accussation in her eyes, too.

"Shuichi and Hiro left to get something to eat before it started," she said quietly. She couldn't tell them that they'd been arguing, and she'd told them if they wanted to keep it up, to take it outside. She didn't know where they went, or where they were now. She kept her eyes off Yuki and Ayaka.

Unfortunately, she couldn't avoid Mika's pleading look. "Was he with you, Noriko?" Mika whispered.

Noriko shook her head, feeling the tears building up. Tohma and Sakano had went straight up to the top floor office to work on whatever it is corporate presidents and their assistants work on. The last thing he'd said to her was that he'd take them out to lunch when he finished, then he'd come with them to the studio to lay down the keyboards for Nittle Grasper's surprise new single. Noriko knew if he'd still been up there, he couldn't have survived. Not even Tohma. She prayed for Mika's sake, and for the baby's, that he'd lied and gone out alone to very early lunch.

One of the doctors hustling by had caught sight of K's arm, with three inches of bloody bone protruding at an unnatural angle, and hurried him away to medical attention. They hadn't been able to pry Judy away, so she'd gone with him. Despite his injury, while they were together, each was calm and content- K's arm hadn't even seemed to be putting him in pain. The only thing he complained about was wanting to get out of there and go pick up Michael, whom Judy had dropped with Ark when she went to the hospital. She tried to quieten him and promised they'd leave as soon as someone looked at his arm.

No one would admit it, but they were all secretly happy to have the reunited couple out of sight. They still had their own loved ones to worry about. Mika was more of a wreck than ever. Noriko stayed by her side, whispering comforting words and soothingly touching her arm. The stress wasn't good for her or her unborn child. If she didn't relax, she'd only do more harm. And with Tohma's fate uncertain, she'd give her life at that point to keep Mika's child safe.

Suguru had taken a place against the wall beside Ryuichi. Both looked like scared little kids, eyes wide and looking around for comfort as they huddled on the floor. Tatsuha wanted to try to comfort one or both of them. He wanted say a kind word to Ayaka, who'd been staring at the same spot on the floor since just after K and company had come in. A nurse had left the dead body of a child there with a sheet over him while she rushed his stretcher off to another doctor. No one had moved the body for over an hour. People had just stepped over it. She was too delicate to handle this.

Tatsuha couldn't comfort any of them, though. He was too concerned about his brother to do anything but watch Yuki vigilantly, looking for any sign of him losing his grip again. He knew he was thinking what everyone else was thinking- if only I'd kept him home, if only I'd done this, if only I'd done that- but his brother felt things deeper, the guilt was more powerful. Part of it had to do with his past, but part of it was his final acceptance of what he felt for Shuichi, which hadn't been that long ago. They'd both finally looked like they had a real chance for happiness together. For everyone, things had been on track towards a blissful existence, and now their lives were as much in ruins as the city.

An intern came through the doors that led to the emergency room and briefly consulted a nurse. She covered her mouth at what he said and pointed towards their group. He straightened his sea-green gown and headed for them. Tatsuha straightened up to head him off. He didn't want to hear whatever the intern had to say. He tried to block his path, but he leaned around him.

"Ms. Seguchi?" He looked at Mika. Tatsuha backed off and let him walk to where Mika was standing. Noriko's hand fell away from her arm.

"Mrs.-Mrs. Tohma Seguchi."

* * *

Next chapter coming soon. Constructive criticism always welcome.


	3. Sleepless, Hopeless

"Ms. Seguchi?" The intern looked at Mika. Noriko's hand fell away from her arm.

"Mrs.-Mrs. Tohma Seguchi." Mika faltered. There was pity in the intern's eyes when he asked her to step away with him for a minute. There wasn't space to move more than a few feet away, where he leaned in to whisper his news to her privately, but everyone had known what it would be before he said it. Ayaka stopped watching the floor and sat down beside Suguru, hiding her head in her arms.

Mika's cry ripped through the room like something inhuman. She slapped the doctor hard one, twice, reared back for a third strike before Tatsuha could pulled her away and turn her into his chest. But instead of her shoving him away like he expected, he felt her dead weight pull him down.

"Mika. Mika!" He lowered her to the ground. She didn't move. "Do something, you asshole!" Tatsuha shouted at the intern. For a second, he sort of shrugged helplessly. He was the same intern Yuki had attacked earlier. Tatsuha felt tremendously sorry for him. "Please help her. She's pregnant."

He was able to pull himself together, check her pulse, and call for a stretcher. Noriko held Mika's unconscious hand and Yuki lifted her into the stretcher, silent but looking more distraught than ever.

"I'm very sorry for your loss," the intern said to them all. "We'll take very good care of Ms. Seguchi. I'll let you know when she wakes up." He made no objection to Noriko following behind him. Instead of going towards the emergency room again, he took her towards the elevator, which had been little used all day, and up to a quieter floor to rest.

That left the five of them sitting there with little else to do but what they'd been doing all day. Only it was getting late. Ayaka noted the setting sun aloud and suddenly everyone was very tired. She convinced Suguru to leave with her. After a little prodding from Tatsuha, Ryuichi listlessly followed them out of the hospital. That left Yuki and his younger brother.

The flood of people in and out had lessened a little. The intern found time to come tell the brothers that the hospital was going to keep Mika overnight, and that Noriko sent her best to them both but was going to stay upstairs with her friend.

At some point during the late evening, someone had turned on the waiting room television. A news update from the downtown Tokyo business district played silently, a bright green 'mute' stamp glowing in the bottom left corner of the screen. The scenes were too horrific, too unreal to be actual buildings and bodies and ambulances just over a mile from the hospital where they were watching it.

Yuki didn't want to know that if he could hear the reporter, he'd hear that no survivors had been found in over an hour, even though rescue crews were still digging through the debris and finding the dead. He didn't want to know that his friend and brother-in-law was dead. He didn't want to know that his sister had fainted after hearing the news, putting herself and her unborn child at risk. He didn't want to know that every minute that went by without hearing from Shuichi meant he was less likely to every hear the pink-haired musician whisper in his ear, or hum a snatch of a song-in-progress, or yell in outrage over the latest of a thousand atrocities Yuki had committed against him.

Yet his mind knew these things more clearly than he knew his own name at that moment. He kept thinking if he could just forget it, if he could just get home and find Shuichi waiting there, that all of it would be back to normal by morning. That's all it would take.

He suddenly straightened up, mumbled something to Tatsuha about being tired, and walked out of the hospital. Confused and worried, his brother followed.

"Eiri, where are you going?"

"Home." Yuki didn't stop walking.

"Well wait up, I'll come with you. You shouldn't just run off alone right now-"

Yuki turned around. For a minute he had his usual haughty, annoyed expression. That was even more troubling to Tatsuha. "If you're going to come, hurry up. I'm driving." Tatsuha didn't say anything else, just followed his brother to his car and back to his house.

After unlocking the front door, Yuki looked around the living room and seemed surprised that it was empty. Tatsuha followed behind him and flipped on the lights that he'd neglected.

"You going to bed, Eiri?" Tatsuha asked him, making it more of a suggestion than an inquiry. His brother ignored him as he headed for the fridge.

"Thirsty?" Yuki called over his shoulder.

"Uh...sure." Grabbing the offered bottle of beer, he came around to see Yuki take the rest of the otherwise full six-pack out. Without saying anything else, he went to his bedroom at the end of the hall with the beer and kicked the door shut behind him.

"I'm going to crash on the couch," Tatsuha called as a last attempt, but Yuki didn't make a sound behind the closed the door. Tatsuha placed the bottle back in the fridge and sprawled out on the couch, thinking over everything that had happened that day and listening for sounds of disturbance from his brother's room until he eventually drifted off to sleep.

There hadn't been a sound from his room for hours. Tatsuha leaned his back over the couch edge and looked down the hall towards Yuki's bedroom door. Nope. Maybe he was asleep again.

"At least that's one of us," Tatsuha grumbled. He settled back down, propping his head up on his fist as he watched updates on the situation downtown. All night news crews had been covering the fruitless rescue attempts, the fires that had been cropping up, and the ever mounting body count. Except for dozing an hour or two, Tatsuha had been up right along with them, taking note of every grim detail. And it was thanks to Yuki that he was awake.

When the muffled shouts pulled him from sleep, Tatsuha's immediate thought was that his brother had tried to hurt himself. He ran into Yuki's room and took stock of the situation.

All five empty bottle of beer, plus the one Tatsuha had placed back in the fridge, were tossed as the bottom of the bed, and Yuki was writhing at the top, fighting his sheets as if they trapped him. Tatsuha pulled them away and knelt beside him, wiping sweat and tears from his face. He hadn't even woken up. There was no sign of anything else being wrong, so Tatsuha picked up the bottles, threw them away, and returned to the couch.

Before ten minutes had passed, Yuki was crying out again. This time he wasn't panicked, he was furious, shouting unintelligible threats and beating Tatsuha until he'd backed off. He sat at the bottom of the bed and watched Yuki wrestle himself into exhaustion and break down into silent tears and a more peaceful sleep.

Tatsuha wasn't forced to confront his brother because Yuki never once woke up, but remained dreaming things his brother didn't even want to know about. It had continued like that for a couple of hours, and then as suddenly as it started, he was peaceful again.

After that, Tatsuha had turned on the television in the living room to keep him awake in case he was needed, and because in all honesty it was hard to fall asleep after hearing his brother's cries. He was worried about his friends from Bad Luck, and his sister and her baby, and Yuki, and he even felt sadness over the death of his brother-in-law, though they'd never been close, and Sakano, who'd at least been good for a laugh now and then.

But he couldn't imagine what everyone else felt like. Out of them all, he'd probably had the least to lose, because the two people he cared most about had been safe at home when the quake hit. Now all he could do was watch Mika suffer, and hope Yuki wouldn't have to go through the same pain.

Tatsuha changed the channel abruptly when he saw a picture of Tohma fill the screen. The press caught wind of Tohma's story before Tatsuha had been woken up, but they tactfully refrained from endlessly repeating it too often in light of all the other deaths. He flipped through the other channels, all covering different stories related to the quake. He held out a vain hope that a news report saying they'd found Shuichi alive would come on.

Yuki rolled over in bed, stretched from his neck down to his toes, and relaxed again into the mattress, not at all inclined to get up. He savored the warmth of the sheets, the softness of the pillow, and how much space there really was in a king-sized bed. It had been a long time since he'd appreciated it. He vaguely wondered why.

While he was in a wondering mood, he wondered why he could hear his television. He couldn't really make out what was being said, but he could hear the distinctive drone of a news report. Had he left the set on last night?

He scratched behind his ear and down to his back and stood up, reluctant but unable to block out the noise now that he'd noticed it. He dragged his bare feet all the way to the living room. He felt kind of cruddy wearing the jeans and button-down shirt he'd had on the day before. He stripped the shirt off on the way out.

"Tatsuha?" Yuki's eye's flickered away from the television screen and to his brother, where they stayed.

"Morning, bro. Sleep good?" Tatsuha asked, smiling wryly and wondering if his brother would even remember his troubled dreams. It didn't look like it. He actually looked kind of...normal.

"I would have slept better if that damned t.v. wasn't blaring," he snapped irritably.

Yeah, he was sure being normal. Tatsuha took his subtle hint, though, and shut off the news report.

"I suppose you want me to make you breakfast."

Tatsuha cocked an eyebrow. Breakfast? He hadn't even thought about food since the morning before.

"Well, what do you want?" He folded over a black apron and tied it around his waist, then stood by the fridge, all business. If he was offering...

"Strawberry muffins." Tatsuha clamped a hand over his mouth. Strawberry muffins were Shuichi's favorite.

Yuki didn't bat an eye. He was digging the in fridge. He took out a quart of milk, smelled it, then dumped it down the sink with a disgusted grimace. "You're out of luck." He stopped short, holding the carton over the trash can.

"I see you already raided my fridge, little brother." Yuki looked at him accusingly.

"What?"

"I only that six pack Monday."

"I didn't drink it," Tatsuha said, walking over. They were looking at the same half-dozen bottles Tatsuha had cleaned off Yuki's bed the night before.

"Who did?" Tatsuha stared at him.

"Last night when we got home you took the whole thing to your room. I cleaned them up before you woke up." Yuki wasn't registering any of the information Tatsuha was sharing. "You know, when you woke me up screaming at some fucking nightmare?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You've got to be kidding me. Eiri, we spent all day at the hospital. Mika-" He didn't want to talk about it. "Then you suddenly decided to come home and get drunk. Ringing any bells?"

Yuki looked stricken for a moment. The milk carton dropped into the trash can and his hand fell back to his side. Then his expression twisted harshly. "No, as a matter of fact, it isn't." Tatsuha couldn't believe what he was hearing. Had his brother hit his head or something? _He __didn't remember?_

"Eiri..." Tatusuha backed up a step and carefully looked over his brother. It was even easier since he'd taken off his shirt. He didn't look hurt in any way. He hadn't fallen out of bed. He didn't even drink that much. What the hell was he trying to pull?

There was only one way to see how far he was taking it. "Where's Shuichi?"

"How the hell should I know? Call his manager, he's probably on tour. He hadn't been home in a few days." Yuki shrugged and turned away, going back to the counter and pulling out various pots and pans.

If this was denial, it was really working for Yuki.

"Eiri, he's not on tour." Tatsuha didn't even know how to approach the subject if Yuki had really blocked out the memory of it. He didn't want to be the one to break it to him (again), that was for sure, but it wasn't going to be any easier for him to find out another way, like when they found Shuichi's body.

"Really? Then what, are you hiding him?" Yuki didn't even turn around.

Tatsuha ground his teeth, suddenly frustrated. Why should Yuki get the easy way out? A tantrum in the hospital and a few tears in his sleep didn't give him the right to just forget- forget Shuichi, forget Mika, forget Tohma.

"Man, this is bull." Tatsuha turned the television back on, this time blaring the volume so there was no chance of Yuki not hearing it. A reporter was interviewing one of the firefighters who'd been working through the night, trying to find survivors among the rubble.

Yuki wheeled around furiously. "I said shut that fucking thing off!" he yelled over the volume.

"No! Get your ass over here and wake the hell up, bro!" At first Yuki didn't listen, but he couldn't block out the words.

"-no one. I've never seen anything like it. Complete buildings collapsing on people still crowded in a conference room on the tenth floor. You can hear a some of them screaming when the fires come, and by then it's too late to get there and do any good but fill another body bag." The firefighter stopped to wipe his eyes. The reporter, alarmed and disturbed by how candid he was, took the chance to cut away.

Yuki was clutching the counter tightly, like he had the intern's coat the day before. His eyes were wide, horrified, like Tatsuha imagined that had been when he first heard the news, but there was a slow crumbling away of denial. And it was just like that. Yuki shook his head, turned away, his shoulders shaking. He remembered everything.

Tatsuha shut the television back off and gave his brother a few minutes of silence. It was Yuki that spoke first. When he turned around, his face was a sunken mask.

"Have you called- called to check on Mika?" he asked weakly.

"No," Tatsuha shook his head. "No, I'll call right now. Why don't you sit down?" He did, heavily, on the couch.

Tatsuha grabbed the phone and stood a few feet away while he called. A haggard-sounding receptionist told him they could visit her later that afternoon if they wanted. He hung up and relayed the news to his brother.

"We should take her something." Tatsuha nodded, about to respond, but the phone in his hand was ringing. The hospital number popped up again. Hopefully they were calling to say they could bring her home with them.

"Hello?"

"Is this the residence of Shuichi Shindou?" The receptionist on the other end was different than the one he'd just talked to, but sounded equally tired.

Tatsuha's breath caught in his throat. "Yes."

"And who is this- a friend of Mr. Shindou's?"

"Yeah- yes, a friend. Did you-?" He couldn't say it.

Her voice was almost robotic. She'd probably been making these calls all morning, maybe even since last night.

"Mr. Shindou was brought in last night by one of the rescue crews. Due to his condition, he was admitted immediately. Is there anyone that could come down to sign papers, could come to visit? A parent or spouse?"

"What's wrong with him?" Tatsuha had to drag it out of her when she tried to hide behind protocol. He tried to catch his breath while he assured her that someone would be down, and thanked her.

"Eiri..." His brother had been hanging onto every word on Tatsuha's side of the conversation for dear life. He was pale, terrified by the look on his brother's face. "They found him. He's at the hospital...He's in a coma."


	4. Respiration

I don't own these characters.

* * *

"I don't make the laws!"

"And I don't make the rules, sir. If you're not his legal spouse, I can't let you in. Unless..."

"Unless what?"

The nurse leaned in conspiratorially. "Unless I can have an autograph, Mr. Yuki."

He was livid when she pulled out a pen, blushing and slipping it into his hand along with a magazine with his face on the cover from behind the desk. She was toying with his time while Shuichi was lying in there in God knows what condition for an _autograph_?

But he'd have given her his soul to get into the room. He signed so quickly she couldn't read the meaningless dedication he wrote. He was walking past her before he'd dotted the 'i' in his name. She squealed and ran off to flash her trophy to all the other nurses, who'd had the same idea as her but weren't lucky enough to be standing outside Shuichi Shindou's room when Yuki got there. Besides, if push came to shove they really weren't going to keep him out. Might as well find a little joy in the tragedy.

Tatsuha had driven and come up with Yuki from the emergency room floor that was still swarming with people, though not as many as yesterday, but he'd hung back at the nurse's station when they got to the fourth floor to get an update on Mika and make a phone call. So Yuki entered Shuichi's room alone. It wasn't what you'd expect for a hospitalized rock star. There weren't flowers or cards or crying fans. Just...a pink-haired kid who looked incredibly small under his white sheet.

Except for the steady rise and fall of his chest, he didn't move. He could have been peacefully asleep, but the plastic dome of the breathing mask strapped to his face ruined the serene image.

Yuki sat on the edge of the bed. At home, Yuki rarely saw Shuichi asleep unless he worked late and walked in on him already in bed. Shuichi was the one always dragging him out of bed in the morning.

Sometimes Shuichi would jump on top of him and wrestle around until there was no chance of Yuki reclaiming sleep. But other times he'd be really quiet, and sit on the edge of the bed just like Yuki was, and whisper in his ear gently, and kiss him slowly, until Yuki would give a sleepy sort of sigh and kiss him back. There was no better way in the world to be woken up.

"Wake up, Shuichi," Yuki whispered into his ear. "You missed breakfast. You're late for work."

The respirator hissed a reply, cynically reminding him there was not point in waking up to go to work when the building wasn't there anymore.

There was no Hollywood moment where Shuichi's eyes fluttered open when Yuki kissed his temple and a few tears fell into his hair. Shuichi didn't tear off his mask or the IVs in his arms to share a passionate embrace with his lover. His chest rose and fell again. Yuki wiped his eyes and sat up. Someone was coming in.

"Hey-" Tatsuha stopped when he saw Shuichi. His face said what Yuki had felt when he walked in. It looked wrong. Shuichi didn't belong in the white room, hooked up to a machine, where he was simply a patient rather than a person laying there fighting for his life.

"Uh, his parents and his little sister are coming up..." Tatsuha said lowly. Yuki wiped his face again.

"You call them?"

"Yeah. I thought they might want to- I didn't know if they'd let-"

"No." Yuki stood up. "No, it's fine. They should see him." His hand found Shuichi's on the bed, and he squeezed it wordlessly and walked out past his brother.

He didn't want to be in the room with Shuichi's family. They were tolerant, but Yuki had never really talked to them, and honestly Shuichi didn't talk about them much, except occasionally about his little sister. Yuki didn't visit when Shuichi went home.

The love of a family was very different than the kind of love Yuki had offered to Shuichi. They deserved to be alone with their son.

Tatsuha joined him in the hall.

"Man, I never thought it would be like that," he whispered, running a hand through his hair. Yuki looked over at him. He looked terrible.

"I'm sorry about this morning, Tatsuha."

"Yeah, no worries. You okay?"

Yuki didn't answer. He was still back in the room, sitting beside Shuichi, just waiting for him to wake up and smile. Tatsuha hope like hell that Shuichi pulled through. You always heard the stories about people who woke up from comas after 20 years. He didn't think Yuki would make it 20 years without him.

"They said they're going to keep Mika another night."

"Why?"

"All the doctor said was some of her vitals were 'troubling'." Yuki nodded, not saying anything. He reached in his pocket for a cigarette, pulled one out, and had it between his lips before he remembered where he was. He crushed it in frustration.

"Can we see her?" Standing around waiting for Shuichi's family to finish visiting was pointless.

"They've had her drugged up all morning to get her to rest, so there's really no point-" That had come out wrong. Yuki's eyes were on Shuichi's door.

"Yeah, no point," he said. "I need a smoke. I'll be back in a few." Yuki dropped his ruined cigarette in a trash can, pulled out another one, and stepped into the elevator.

Outside, the air was still smoky from the fires that were still burning after the earthquake. Just yesterday...

He took his first drag and told himself the cigarette was going to calm him down. He didn't know what to be feeling. Sick with worry for Shuichi. And Mika, too, if they weren't telling them what was wrong with her. He hadn't even had time to think of grieving for Tohma, who he still couldn't accept was gone.

Tatsuha was the level head now, trying to comfort Yuki. He hated being weak in front of his brother. Why the hell was he being so mature and understanding, anyway? There was no telling how he felt. Yuki hadn't even asked.

Damn it, everything was in shambles. He took a last puff and ground the cigarette beneath his heel.

"Mr. Yuki, sir?"

He turned his head. Shuichi's sister Maiko was standing next to him, looking like more of a wreck than he felt. She looked like Shuichi after he'd thrown a tantrum. Maybe that was because she just looked a lot like Shuichi.

"Your brother said you'd be out here. Do you mind me bothering you?" He jerked his head to the side once, not sure what to say.

"I answered the phone earlier when Tatsuha called. When he told me about Shuichi, I called him a liar. I didn't want him to be in a coma. I wanted him to walk through the door with a big goofy grin and tell me it was another joke. Hiro would have helped him, of course. They haven't even found him yet." She was fighting tears as she spoke.

"The doctors say when he wakes up, he might not be...the same. Might not remember, or might have something...missing."

Yuki listened mutely.

"What would you do, Mr. Yuki? What if he's not Shuichi anymore?"

He didn't let himself think about the answer. He wasn't interviewing on some national talk show. He told her how he really felt, she deserved that much. "Then...I wouldn't be me anymore. I'd be whoever he needed me to be. Whoever could still be with him."

"Yeah. Me to." She was crying now. Yuki wasn't the comforting type. He looked up at the sky, watching a lone cloud race across the window of blue between the high rooftops and listening to Maiko until she'd gotten control of her emotions again.

"Thanks for listening, Mr. Yuki," she said. "I'm glad he'll have you when he wakes up." She gave him a quick hug, too sudden for him to respond to before she'd ran back inside.

A few minutes later he followed her. On the way to the elevator, he passed the Shindou family going out. Mr. Shindou nodded, but was supporting his wife, who looked on the verge of collapse. Miako was helping to hold her up on her other side.

He wasn't awake yet, that much was obvious. Yuki couldn't do anything about that, but he wasn't the only person hurting. He could take care of his little brother. Without Yuki to look out for him, he could end up crying to some stranger on the sidewalk.

When Yuki got back to Shuichi's floor a young nurse had abandoned her position behind the reception desk and was bent over Tatsuha in a very motherly fashion. Leaning forward with his head in his hands, it would seem to most people that he was very upset and in need of comfort. But Yuki could see, even if the nurse couldn't, that what was causing him to be upset was her smothering attention.

He drew himself up and walked over so that he was standing coldly in front of them. She gave a frightened yelp when she looked up and scurried back to her desk.

His icy exterior melted when he sat down next to Tatsuha, who gave him a slight smile, his first since yesterday. For the first time since they were much younger, Yuki ruffled his brother's hair over his eyes. "Are you okay, Tatsuha?"

He batted the hand away, shaking his hair vigorously so that it was more disheveled than ever. But he laughed. "Yeah, I'm fine. Are _you_ okay?" Yuki nodded and there was a minute of silence during which both of them thought about how the other was lying.

"So, they're gone?" It wasn't much of a question. Yuki had seen them leave.

"Uh-huh. You want to go see him?"

"No.". Yuki stood up, watching his brother again. "Let's go see Mika."

Tatsuha hadn't shown so much enthusiasm all day as when he bound up to follow Yuki. His earlier excuse about Mika being drugged had been pathetic at best, but he didn't want Yuki to worry any more than he already was. It was a good sign that he wanted to go see her. If Yuki was there, the two of them might be able to handle her.

They heard a strangled cry and a loud crash as they came up in the hallway and ran in.

"Get out of here, you damn little-" They'd cut off a the escape of a nurse, while beside the bed an empty plate gave a final, sad spin and landed flat with dull thwap. She looked between then and eased her way by, closing the door behind her.

Mika was propped up in bed, her hands twisted painfully deep in the sheets. Her face was red and swollen from the combination of crying and shouting that she'd obviously been doing for awhile.

"This is drugged?" Yuki whispered to Tatsuha.

"Drugged?" Mika's laugh was straight out of a cheesy sci-fi movie. "These QUACKS are pumping me full of sugar water while they drain my husband's wallet!" She ripped an IV out of her arm with her teeth. That was when Yuki noticed the restraints around her wrists. He couldn't say anything to her. What can you say?

A nurse bustled through the door, this one bigger and older than the last. It would take a lot to shake her. Their sister was a problem patient.

"Ms. Seguchi, you can't-"

"Mrs. Seguchi!"

The nurse amended herself. "Mrs. Seguchi, you can't pull out your IV. Your body and your spirit are under a tremendous amount of stress right now. We're giving you relaxants, and it would help greatly if you'd actually try to relax. Think of yourself. Think of _the baby_."

"I don't want to think of it!" She was crying again. She looked up at her younger brothers, standing so helplessly in the door, but she was more helpless than either of them. "I don't want to think of it. I don't want it. What is it- what if it looks like him? What if it's just like him? I don't want-" But she couldn't say anything more.

Mika made no protest as the nurse reinserted the needle. She merely bowed her head and let her emotions swallow her.

Before she left, the nurse spoke quietly to Yuki and Tatsuha. Her expression had softened. "I've upped her dosage, and it should put her back to sleep in a minute or two. She's been through a lot. Maybe you should come back later." With a last pitying look, she bustled out again, fully expecting them to follow her. What else was there to do?

Tatsuha wasn't ready to leave, though. He looked at Yuki. He was asking permission. Yuki smiled at him, attempting to be the older brother Tatsuha needed him to be right then. He didn't blame him. Tatsuha had been quick to take that role when Yuki had needed him to, but it was time that he take care of his little brother, too.

"Mika." Tatsuha had brushed her hair away from her face. Her eyes were fluttering.

"Tat-su-" He wiped away the tear stains that were still on her cheeks. He felt a drop fall from his own eyes.

"I'm right here. So is Eiri." But she was already unconscious. Yuki picked up a small doll of the bedside table. It bore a remarkable resemblance to Noriko, and the tag sewn into it's foot proved that indeed it was intended to be a stuffed imitation of the music star. For some reason it made him smile. He knew her intention had been to remind Mika that she wasn't alone.

"Tatsuha, let me see your wallet."

Tatsuha looked at him questioningly, but handed over his wallet. Yuki flipped through it for a minute before finding what he knew would be there: a picture of the three of them taken at some professional photography studio when they were still teenagers. He set the doll on the table again, facing Mika, and propped the picture up beside it. Tatsuha smiled as he took back his wallet.

"We're all watching out for you, sis. We'll take care of you." Tatsuha kissed her cheek and turned away.

Yuki briefly squeezed her hand. "We'll be back, Mika."

They left the room together. It had only been a couple of hours since they left home, but Yuki could already see the strain in Tatsuha and feel it in himself. But...

"Tatsuha, can you give me a minute?"

"I'll wait by the elevator."

Yuki really only did take a few minutes. He didn't even go past the door to Shuichi's room. Inside an intern was copying down figures from one of the machines Shuichi was hooked to. He looked up when Yuki appeared in the door, but returned to his paper without a word. Yuki couldn't bring himself to get closer. He felt something heavy and cold in his stomach when he looked at Shuichi on the hospital bed.

He sent out a silent prayer, his first in longer than he could remember, and whispered a promise to come back. Then he met Tatsuha at the elevator.

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

After seeing two people they loved in the state Mika and Shuichi were in, anyone would have though they were ready to go back downstairs. But they had no idea.

* * *

Just the beginning...


	5. Life Must Go On After Death

They stepped off on the first floor into hell. Yuki couldn't honestly remember if he'd walked past so many bodies that morning, many of them not recognizably human. They were able to discern from the howls and curses as they picked their way towards the door that another hospital had turned out many of the victims of the earthquake due to an outbreak of some contagious infection.

It was unreal. Upstairs, Yuki had thought it was horrible to watch Shuichi and Mika, neither with any severe physical injury, when here were women crying, their faces half burned off, and men missing arms and legs.

The nurse who'd been frightened off by Mika earlier was wrapping a heavy bandage around a young boy's chest. God knows what he'd been doing in that part of the city. Her face was set, not hard, but there was no sympathy in it. There was nothing.

That's how Yuki felt. In the face of such unimaginable carnage, it was easier to just shut down. Because if he didn't, in every face he'd see Shuichi, Mika, Tohma...so many people...

"Oh, my God!" Tatsuha was no longer standing by him, but kneeling on the floor beside...

"Jesus." Yuki swore under his breath, moving closer to his brother. He barely recognized the man lying on a sheet on the floor. It was hard to distinguish where the blood stopped and his hair began, but it was that unusual coloring that made him identifiable.

"Hiroshi! Hiro, can you hear me? Where's a doctor?" Tatsuha was frantic. There weren't any to spare, but one of the interns turned their way.

"Don't touch him," he snapped as Tatsuha continued to try to wake up the guitarist, who made no response. "He was one of the transfers from the other hospital. He won't last the night."

Yuki didn't even react to how tactlessly he made his prophecy. Tatsuha didn't seem to hear him. People moved all around him, and he stood over Shuichi's best friend and his little brother and didn't feel anything but the cold feeling spreading out of his stomach.

"He's not breathing!" Tatsuha turned to him wildly, having complete faith that Yuki would know what to do. He had no idea.

"Shit." The intern had left his other makeshift treatment station and rushed to Hiro, despite his prediction that Hiro was a lost cause.

He shoved Tatsuha aside roughly. He was all business. "I've got no pulse." If he'd been in an emergency room that wasn't packed with dozens of other people that had no pulses, he might have gotten a response. He might have gotten a team of trained professionals who'd have worked to revive Hiro. Who knows if it would have even made a difference.

He didn't give up, though. For more than five minutes, what felt like an hour, he alternated chest compressions and mouth to mouth resuscitation. It was another intern who pulled him off, whispering soothingly that they had to save the ones they could.

"He can be saved!" Tatsuha cried. "You didn't do enough!"

"I don't want to have to ask you to leave. We've got enough to deal with here," said the second intern. Yuki could tell that he knew the numbness well, too.

"Come on, Tatsuha." Yuki ushered his brother away. He didn't fight, he just cried silently and let himself be pushed along.

The first intern looked at Yuki. "I- I shouldn't have said- I didn't want- I tried. I tried to save him." Yuki nodded. He couldn't have known he'd be right. He'd probably kill himself over it, too. But there was nothing Yuki could for him.

"What was his name?"

"Hiroshi Nakano."

There was a tremor of recognition as the intern bent to write the name on Hiro's arm in black permanent marker, as if to say, "No one will ever not know who this man was."

And Yuki couldn't stop thinking that no one would ever know who that man could have been.

When they got out of the hospital, he was shivering.

Where ever a tragedy occurs, there are people who are willing to take advantage of it for their own purposes. But until he saw it, Yuki would have never imagined the swarm of vultures that had been sent by every national tabloid, and a few foreign ones as well. They'd crowded in the hospital parking lot like hungry dogs. It was a nightmare.

"I'm standing here outside the hospital where Shuichi Shindou, the lead singer Bad Luck, is reportedly in critical condition after yesterday's devastating quake brought NG's Tokyo recording studio to the ground. Among the casualties was Tohma Seguchi, NG's president and the keyboard virtuoso of Nittle Grasper. He is survived by Mika Seguchi, his expecting wife, also rumored to be hospitalized here due to extreme stress."

The reporter's words had a conspiratorial air, as if she were telling her audience big, juicy secrets. Just hearing her talk about Shuichi and Mika made Yuki want to break something- maybe the camera, for starters.

But he pulled Tatsuha to his chest and bowed his own head as they skirted around the group. The last thing either of them needed right now was publicity. He refused to feed the machine with news of Hiro's death.

There were a few calls for their attention as they made their way to the car, but it wasn't until a reporter recognize the vehicle as Yuki's and raised the alarm that they had trouble.

"Eiri Yuki! Can we have a word?" Yuki slammed his door and checked to make Tatsuha was in before he gunned it in reverse, almost running over one of the pursuing reporters.

"Yuki-sama-" They were already out of the parking lot.

Yuki eased his foot off the accelerator as the hospital disappeared in the rearview mirror and cast a sideways glance at his brother. Tatsuha was staring out the windshield, but it was plain that he didn't see anything that they were passing.

"Yuki...Yuki, can we go see Ayaka?"

"Now?" He asked it gently. All Tatsuha did was look back in reply, pleading without saying a word. He wanted her to hear the news from someone she knew, someone who'd been there, rather than in some sleazy news report.

"Yeah, we'll go see her. Where's she staying?" She'd gotten a place in the city a few months ago to spend more time with Hiro. Their relationship moved slow, but had been steadily intensifying. Now it was over.

Tatsuha directed him in a monotone. Of all the members of the NG crowd, Hiro had been who he was closest to. He'd been able to laugh with him, to talk with him about music, bikes, and women. Hiro had always talked about Ayaka. Tatsuha wanted her to know that.

They pulled up in front of her apartment building and walked up. Yuki had never been over. It was nice. He wondered how many timed Hiro had visited. Tatsuha was the one to knock.

"Ayaka, it's Tatsuha and Eiri. Can we come in?" She opened the door immediately. She had probably been waiting for someone to come with news.

"Did they find him?" Her eyes were bloodshot and she hadn't changed since the night before.

They walked past her into the apartment, neither of them saying anything yet. There were blankets on the couch and chair in the living room. From somewhere far back in his mind, Yuki recalled her leaving the hospital.

"Is the kid still here?"

"Fujisaki left last night." Her voice and hands were shaking. "Eiri- where is he? You have to tell me!" She grasped his shirt, trying to wring the answer from the fabric. "Please tell me."

"He's at the hospital," Tatsuha told her. She rounded on him, her streaming eyes shining with hope. He had to kill that hope. "They transferred him in last night and he- and he-" His own eyes filled with tears. He'd never hear Hiro play again. They'd never grab fries and shakes when they had the same day off. And Ayaka...

"Hiro died this morning, Ayaka." Tatsuha didn't know if he'd said it or if Yuki had. The words didn't seem like they belonged in anyone's mouth.

Ayaka swayed a little before her knees buckled. Yuki carried her to the couch. She pulled her knees and arms to her chest. The tears were silent. For a long time, no one said anything.

"He...he always loved you, Ayaka." Tatsuha couldn't think of anything to say but that. "He-"

She stood suddenly, turning away from them both. "Thank you for coming all the way here to tell me in person. I appreciate it. Now I need to be alone. Please show yourselves out."

"Ayaka-" Tatsuha reached out to stop her from walking away, but Yuki caught him.

"You know how to reach us, Ayaka. We're very sorry." Yuki knew what it was like to want to be alone. After Kitazawa's, he'd spent years alone inside himself. And then Shuichi came along...

"Let's go, Tatsuha." His brother looked back regretfully at the Ayaka's closed bedroom door, but left as asked.

In the lobby they ran into a camera crew entering the building.

"She's in 4C," one of them said, double checking a scrap of paper in his hand. "Usimi or something."

Tatsuha looked disgusted, but Yuki stopped to talk to them.

"What's the story, boys?" Yuki could be downright scary when he wanted to, and these guys were getting the full force of his power.

"E-Erie Yuki-sama? Were you-" His eyes widened in realization of something Yuki didn't want to know about.

"If you value your jobs and your health, you'll leave Miss Usami alone." The nodded their heads furiously as Yuki cracked his knuckles. They were out of the lobby before Yuki and Tatsuha were.

"She'd be grateful for that," Tatsuha said as they climbed into the car. They waited for the van to pull out before leaving.

"Scavengers" was all Yuki muttered when he stepped on the gas. In reality, his action would help anyone. He knew how the system worked. Reporters could do more damage than any natural disaster.

And sure enough, the headline in the next morning's tabloid was, "Romance Novelist Turns Charm on Mystery Man and Distraught Lover of Dead Guitarist" with a subhead that included the finer points of his relationship with Shuichi, still reportedly in critical condition. The accompanying photos were of Yuki and Tatsuha in the hospital parking lot, and Yuki climbing into his car outside of Ayaka's apartment (with Tatsuha's side of the car conveniently cut form the photo). It was the only reason he had to be thankful that Shuichi was still in a coma.

Someone, somewhere, thought enough damage hadn't been done already.


End file.
